World

Making sense of the minority police officer experience

If you have ever been near the front of an anti-police brutality protest — which have exploded across the country since grand juries in Missouri and New York exonerated white cops for killing unarmed black men — you have heard people talk shit to the police.

Some of it is banal, some clever and some visceral. But most can agree that some of the worst is reserved by black and Latino protesters for black and Latino officers.

These people don't give a damn about you. Before you put on that badge did these people think of you as any [more] than a n*****? No! Before you put on the badge they didn't give a damn about you...And you know I'm right, that's why you stopped looking at me.

In general, policing is still a white profession: Government data from 2007, which is the most recent available, reveals that only about a quarter of officers in America are not white.

Black and Latino police who face vitriol from civilians and protesters experience complex feelings. The way these officers personally approach protests is often a trade-off between their communities and an already fundamentally racist police institution.

So, what is going through American minority police officers' heads when they're facing protests like #BlackLivesMatter?

He could have been our son, our brother, our father

Noel Leader, second from left, a cofounder of the police fraternal organization, 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, speaks to reporters after meeting at the Manhattan District Attorney's office, Wednesday, July 6, 2011, in New York.

Image: AP Photo/Mary Altaffer/Associated Press

Former sergeant and 20-year veteran of the NYPD, Noel Leader, worked in the force from the mid-1980s until 2006. He cofounded the organization 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care and also supported protests.

“Many of my members [of color] are angry, because [Garner] could have been our son, our brother, our father,“ he tells me. “When you're African-American, you understand that you have the uniform, [but] members of your families do not. So we are more sympathetic and more sensitive to this type of injustice than others are.”

He also said that while many black officers could empathize with protesters' demands, they still had a job to do when they showed up to demonstrations.

“Officers are confronting angry protesters. They know that. We have personal opinions, but when we put on our uniforms, we have to do our jobs," he says. "There's not a contradiction between the job and the opinion. I don't arrest anyone unless they break the law,” he said, though acknowledging the protests had been disruptive, and some activities are technically illegal.

“After Ferguson, people talk about training, and re-training,” Leader says. “They say training to avoid the real problem, which is the racial discrimination. It's the mentality of police officers as it relates to communities of color.”

The chokehold was already prohibited by the patrol guide, he points out. Most officers he has spoken with, even the white ones, are surprised that Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who choked Eric Garner to death in Staten Island, was not charged with anything. But primarily officers of color felt raw about the decision.

Turbulence

Police confront demonstrators outside the police station November 28, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.

Image: Scott Olson/Getty Images

I ask Leader what it was like for officers to navigate race within the NYPD office during his time there. He says the discussions weren't as divisive as one might imagine.

“It's natural to have a difference of opinion. Officers talk and debate, lighthearted debate...for the most part, people respect others' opinion.”

Black NYPD officers currently working for the department offer a bleaker picture. I spoke with one black officer through a friend who was related to the officer. He did not want to reveal himself out of fear for his job. Neither did he offer his rank or experience level.

“It hurts us to see such media frenzy that appears one-sided,” he said, referring to the scrutiny the police experienced since the non-indictments. “Our prayers and thoughts are with Eric Garner and his family and to the officer involved and his family. It is a turbulent time for us in law enforcement, and I just hope the protesters and the city remain peaceful and calm.”

“The public sees one case and then there is stereotyping against the NYPD. There are a lot of cops out there who try to do the right thing, help the community and put people away who deserve it,” the commander told the Marshall Project.

The blue wall

Image: Aaron Miguel Cantu

Former NYPD sergeant Anthony Miranda, who is Latino and served on the force for 20 years, says you cannot understand what is going through the minds of officers of color who patrol protests without understanding how they reconcile contradictions between race-impacted policing and their professional everyday duties.

“When [New Yorkers] see cops at protests, it doesn't matter if they're white or brown or black, people see them as representing an abusive agency that has operated on a quota system for the last last 20 years,” he tells me.

In the NYPD, for instance, officers are told to reach performance goals, a threshold of stops. Previous investigations reveal that residents in poor minority communities are targeted to reach these goals. According to the New York Civil Liberties Union, about 81% of the 7.3 million people hit with violations between 2001 and 2013 were black and Hispanic.

Some departments practice the “broken windows” philosophy of policing, the aggressive crackdown on minor crimes — selling loose cigarettes, copping a free subway ride — as a way to deter more serious crime. Theorists have pointed out that broken windows policing targets behaviors most often committed by dark-skinned people in poor neighborhoods.

“Minority officers are challenged when they have to fill quotas in minority communities,” he says. “These officers may say to themselves, 'I need to do these things so I can enhance myself professionally, so I can protect my family.'" That may be why they don't speak out, he says — because they're looking for career advancement.

Captain Ron Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol has been sympathetic to peaceful protesters in Ferguson, but has warned that violence will not be tolerated. Many have praised his ability to relate to protesters as a calm and motivational leader who protects the community.

Image: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Whether or not the officers fulfill these duties — and whether or not they are sympathetic to the protests happening right now — depends on their degree of participation with this approach. "Indoctrination," Miranda calls it.

If minority police officers don't buy into the "blue wall," in other words, if they hold onto their history and past relationships, it's a daily battle, he says. If they buy into the idea that "[My fellow officers] are here for me, and I'm here for them," it's not so strenuous.

“You reach a point of personal integrity and say, 'I'm not going to follow orders anymore.'" He says, "But there's a whole ocean you have to cross to get there."

Miranda used to patrol the same Brooklyn precinct where unarmed 28-year-old Akai Gurley was shot and killed by an officer in a housing project. He acknowledges that this area, like others surrounding it, suffer from high crime rates, but he and many officers of color support ongoing protests against unaccountable and racist policing. They want tangible changes, such as the Ferguson injunction that temporarily prevented cops from using tear gas on protesters.

"Uncle Tom"

The African-American NYPD officer at right was called "Uncle Tom" by a protester, right before this image was taken.

Cops of color know that out of uniform, they're just as susceptible to police aggression as any minority on the street — as are their family members. Stories of off-duty black and Latino cops being stopped and frisked, manhandled or even killed by fellow officers abound. Naturally that makes them more sensitive to the Ferguson and Staten Island cases, which are the most recent, visible examples of a systemic pattern of police exoneration after killing African-Americans. It also makes them, on the whole, more sensitive to protesters' cries of racism in the street, despite their trained poker faces.

"There is a running joke in the department that being a black chief is equivalent to being a white captain — meaning you are not taken seriously," the anonymous precinct commander told the Marshall Project.

That doesn't mean black or Latino cops won't pepper spray or take you down during a demonstration. It also doesn't preclude the possibility that some officers have been indoctrinated past the point of sympathy, as Anthony Miranda says. But it does mean that for most, there's more going on inside their heads when somebody calls them an Uncle Tom.

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